Silver lining: County hopes good demographics will help retail break through economic gloom - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Unfortunately, getting all the necessary approvalsx from the city of Overland Park took longer than largely because of a pioneer cemeteryh nearthe site. “The cemetery isn’t part of the said Waters, a longtimwe Johnson County retail developer. “But five of the gravese were in the way of puttinvg a turn lane and a sidewalkin there. So I had to go througu a yearlong process of movingthose Now, Waters is attempting to exhume Crystal which includes 36 acres for retail and 60 acres for offices on 135tyh Street between Quivira and Pflumm roads.
During the two yeard prior to completion of development work at the site in SouthernJohnson County’s retail vacancy rate nearly doublex to the 10 percent mark, where the metro-wide market has hoveredd for the past few Fortunately, Waters and others tryinb to fill Johnson County retaiol centers said, the county’s superior demographics continue to give it an edge in attracting new stores. “We’re still seeing some decent activity from smallo local andregional users,” said Matt senior vice president of .
Waters, said he won’t be able to take advantage of that demandd until he lands a large anchor or two from a fielcd that has been thinned by the recengt bankruptciesof , and other national “I don’t want to anchor a 36-acre shopping center with a nail salon,” he said. “Anfd if I do 30,00 0 or 40,000 square feet of small shops to kickit off, that’as what I’m going to have in there. once I build a retailo strip center on one ofthe pads, I’m I’ve got a building sitting ther e that could be in the way of a big Waters said he is certain he would have landed an ancho already had Crystal Springs been pad-ready two yeare ago.
Seeking anchors in a recession is a lot he acknowledged, but it’s possible that the downturjn could work in his favor. “If you’r e a retailer being pressured by Wall Street to increase your volumdof sales, you’re not going to put that new 200,000-square-foot stord in Phoenix, where the housing market is totally in the or Detroit, where unemployment is off the charts and all threde automakers are in Waters said. “If they’ve got money to retailers are going to look for the bright And Johnson County is one of thosdebright spots.
” Within a one-mile radiuxs of Crystal Springs, for instance, the average householdr income is projected to rise to $162,293 in 2010 — more than two and a half timese the metropolitan Kansas City average projected for 2010. With those kind of it wasn’t surprising that 12 new shopping centera were being developed five yearx ago onthe seven-mile stretch of 135th Streeg in Overland Park and Leawood — then Johnson County’s hot, new retailp corridor.
But today, some of those centerd are struggling to find tenants despitetheir demographics, and amongy the retailers beyond their reach are the many with locations on 119tnh Street — the county’s previous hot east-west “Coffee Creek is the next logical step for retailerxs who already operate successfully on 119th Street,” said Jeff a senior vice He is marketing the 1 million-square-foot Coffee Creek shopping center planneds for 159th Street and U.S. Highway 69 in Overlane Park. Within a three-mile radius of the Coffee Creek the average household income is Berg said.
But rooftops in the area remaijntoo sparse, he said, so the center’a first-phase opening has been pushed back from 2011 untip the housing and retail markets thaw. “We are leapfrogging Corbinb Park,” a 1.1 million-square-foot retail centert under development at 135th Streett andMetcalf Avenue, Berg said. “That’ws a great project, but if you’re a retailedr who is on 119thStreert already, do you go to Corbin and closde or compete with your good store, or do you just followa the growth further south?
” Developed by Omaha-basex , Corbin Park features two large anchors — a department storr and — and has signed a few juniord anchors, including Best Buy and Barnes & But several other junior anchors and smaller tenants are needef to build the center out, and each grou p may be waiting for the other to pull the “All of those juniodr anchors are dependent upon the co-tenancg of the small shops, and vice versa,” said Vaupell of RED “So I don’t know wherre Corbin Park stands.” A spokesman for Cormac Co. did not responc to an interview request.
But Bob Johnson of , a Kansaz City retail adviser and brokerage, said the vacanf and planned retail space along 135tnh Street will be absorbed once theeconomyt rebounds.